Category: Health/Science

Smokers hoping to kick the habit for good this New Year be warned: a new study says the patch is no more effective than quitting cold turkey.

Researchers at Harvard University and University of Massachusetts Boston found that nicotine replacement therapies, including the patch, gum, inhaler or nasal spray, did little to help smokers quit in the long term and in some cases, worsened the habit.

“We would have liked to see that (nicotine replacement therapies) were effective in abstinence because the toll smoking takes is devastating. But unfortunately, we see that this approach is not the answer,” said co-author Hillel Alpert of the Harvard School of Public Health.

Yet these therapies, long supported by medical studies as effective, remain a centrepiece of anti-smoking programs and policies in both the U.S. and Canada.

More than 68,000 smokers in Ontario have received nicotine replacement therapies free since 2005 under the government-funded Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients program. In July 2011, the Ontario government introduced a $3-million project that provides free, over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapies and counselling to smokers.

But in the first study of its kind, published Monday in the journal Tobacco Control, U.S. researchers examined the long-term effects of nicotine replacement therapies in nearly 800 adults in Massachusetts who had quit smoking in the previous two years, and found little benefit over a six-year period.

“(Nicotine replacement therapies) are intended to treat withdrawal in the short term. They’re not the silver bullet to help you quit,” said Gregory Connolly, director of the Center for Global Tobacco Control at the Harvard School of Public Health, co-author with Alpert and Lois Biener of the University of Massachusetts Boston.

The smokers, surveyed three times between 2001 and 2006, were asked whether they used a nicotine replacement therapy, how long they used the therapy and whether they joined a quit-smoking program or consulted with a professional to help them quit.

At each stage of the survey, researchers found that nearly a third of people who had used a nicotine replacement therapy had relapsed. Heavy smokers who used nicotine replacement therapies without professional counselling were twice as likely to return to smoking, according to the study.

The findings cast doubt on publicly-funded programs that tout nicotine-replacement therapies as an effective way to curb smoking, said Connolly.

For Peter Selby, head of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s nicotine dependence clinic in Toronto, nicotine replacement therapies are critical in helping vulnerable populations wean themselves off cigarettes.

“Medication is not the only answer, but it’s part of a comprehensive approach,” said Selby.

“In a country like Canada where the burden of smoking is borne by people who can least afford to smoke, you need to have options for them to get help,” adds Selby, lead investigator on the provincially funded Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients study, which provides the therapies free to smokers in the study.

Therapies could help people in the early stages of quitting, said Connelly, but, based on the latest research, they don’t appear to be sustainable.

A third of the cancers diagnosed each year in the UK – more than 100,000 – are caused by smoking, alcohol, unhealthy diets and obesity, research showed.

The most comprehensive review of cancer and lifestyles ever conducted in the UK showed that 45 per cent of all cancers in men could be prevented, compared with 40 per cent of cancers in women.

Smoking is still the most important factor when it comes to causing cancer. The study found it was responsible for 23 per cent of cancers in men and 15.6 per cent in women.

But the review also found that a lack of fruit and vegetables was responsible for 6.1 per cent of cancers in men, while being overweight causes 6.9 per cent of cancers in women.

“Many people believe cancer is down to fate or ‘in the genes’ and that it is the luck of the draw whether they get it,” according to the study’s author, Professor Max Parkin from Queen Mary, University of London.

“Looking at all the evidence, it is clear that around 40 per cent of all cancers are caused by things we mostly have the power to change.”

The work by Cancer Research UK found there were an estimated 314,250 cases of cancer across Britain last year, with tobacco responsible for causing 60,837 of them.

“We know, especially during the Christmas party season, that it is hard to watch what you eat and limit alcohol, and we do not want people to feel guilty about having a drink or indulging a bit more than usual,” the charity’s Sara Hiom said.

“But it is very important for people to understand that long-term changes to their lifestyles can really reduce their cancer risk.”

The full research was published in the British Journal of Cancer.

WOMAN who take birth control pills tend to choose as partners men who are less attractive and worse in bed but a sounder bet for a long-term relationship, according to a study published yesterday.

Probing the effect of contraceptive hormones on mating choice, researchers questioned 2519 women in the United States, Czech Republic, Britain and Canada who had had at least one child.

The volunteers were asked to rate their relationship for general satisfaction and sexual pleasure and the attractiveness of their partner or, retrospectively, of their ex.

Oral contraception had been used by 1005 women when they met their partner, while 1514 had used no form of hormonal birth control at the first encounter.

“Our results show some positive and negative consequences of using the pill when a woman meets her partner,” said Craig Roberts of Stirling University, Scotland, who led the investigation.

Roberts suspects birth control pills skew the sub-conscious “chemistry” by which a woman makes a mating choice.

Previously, he found that using oral contraceptives altered women’s preferences for men’s body odor.

When they did not take birth control pills, women were subjected to the strong hormonal swings of the menstrual cycle.

During ovulation, they unwittingly preferred the smell of men who were genetically dissimilar.

The evolutionary explanation for this is that babies that are born from genetically dissimilar couples tend to be healthier and have a better chance of survival.

But when women took contraceptive pills, they preferred the smell of genetically similar men, Roberts found.

This was because the normal hormonal swings of the menstrual cycle evened out under the effect of the contraception.

The hormone levels typically reflected the non-fertile phase of the menstrual cycle, when women “are more attracted to men who appear more caring and reliable – good dads,” said Roberts.

Although such men are a better choice for long-term partnerships, the risk of a relationship breakdown is still there.

“Women who used oral contraception when they met their partner tended to find him less attractive, engaged in compliant sex and rejected sexual advances more frequently as the relationship progressed, and were more likely to initiate separation if it occurred,” the study notes bleakly.

The new research gives an important statistical push to the theory of sexual chemistry but also raises a dilemma.

Should a woman go for Mr. Hunk or Mr. Nice? To women who are mistrustful of what their body is telling them, going off oral contraception and using a condom could help provide the answer, Roberts suggested.

“Choosing a non-hormonal barrier method of contraception for a few months before getting married might be one way for a woman to check or reassure herself that she’s still attracted to her partner,” he said.

The volunteers for the study were recruited through personal contact, social networking sites and advertising on pregnancy and parenthood forum websites. Of the 2,519 women, 1,761 women were still in a relationship with the biological father of their first child.

BRITS are up in arms after the recipe for their beloved and iconic HP sauce was secretly changed by US food giant Heinz — with the blame placed on the British government.

The British brown sauce, now produced by Heinz, had its salt level reduced from 2.1g per 100g to 1.3g per 100g in line with a British government health initiative.

Despite what might appear to be a minor change, connoisseurs including chef Marco Pierre White, who has three Michelin stars, have vented their anger over the new sauce. Mr White, who trained the likes of Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal, told London’s The Daily Telegraph he had sent back a meal of sausages and mash at posh London pub The Hansom Cab — owned by broadcaster Piers Morgan — thinking the sausages were off.

“At first, I thought it was the sausages, but it wasn’t,” Mr White said. “It was the HP, which tasted disgusting. It was definitely dodgy. I had no idea they had changed the recipe.

“I was brought up on HP sauce in Yorkshire. My old man used to say ketchup was for southerners and HP was for northerners.

“My father would turn in his grave if he discovered they changed the recipe.”

Heinz explained the change to the 116-year-old recipe by saying the company was committed to lowering salt levels as directed by the British government.

In line with changes in consumer tastes, Heinz has long been dedicated to reducing added salt in recipes, in line with government health targets, a Heinz spokesman said.

HP sauce was developed in Nottingham, central England, in 1895. It was named HP sauce when its inventor, grocer Frederick Gibson Garton, heard it was being served in London’s houses of parliament.

For many years, a picture of the houses of parliament and their famous Big Ben clock have adorned the sauce’s label.

The sauce contains malt vinegar, tomato, dates, tamarind extract, sweetener and spices.